There has been much controversy over which protest strategies are the most effective in creating change. While many think that violent protests are more successful as they attract more media attention due to their violent nature, nonviolent and peaceful civil resistance is more successful. While media attention is critical to accelerating a campaign, peaceful protests still receive a lot of media attention. Civil resistance occurs when a group of people use nonviolent resistance to protest an idea, law, government, or action. Peaceful protests, such as hunger strikes, sit-ins, marches and civil resistance, have been shown to be the most successful form of protest. Nonviolent civil resistance is the most successful form of protest for creating change because it cannot be easily suppressed by government forces, is inclusive, and has higher success rates in creating change than violent protests. Peaceful protests like the Kent State protest in Vietnam had the potential to be very effective if not for the government's violent response, and the Arab Spring uprising had become more powerful because of the government's violent response. Many successful campaigns and movements such as the Haitian Rebellion and the Montgomery Bus Boycott were both successful protests that led to social and political change for many Afro-Haitians and African Americans. The effectiveness of non-violent civil resistance is seen in these cases. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Throughout history, there have been many occasions when the government has used violence as a means to achieve a certain goal. Whether at war or on the streets to silence the masses, governments have killed and injured thousands upon thousands of nonviolent protesters. While it works at the moment, the government's violent repression of the nonviolent campaign is not effective as it often backfires. This is illustrated in the 1970 Kent State University shooting and the Arab Spring uprising. On May 4, 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio, approximately 2,000 students gathered to peacefully protest America's participation in the Vietnam War. National Guard troops fired on protesters, killing 4 people and wounding 9. The US government received a lot of backlash because of this and the crackdown on the protest in Kent State and the murder of innocent, unarmed students have led to student strikes, the closure of more than 450 campuses nationwide, mass demonstrations and riots across the country. While it is not often that government officials respond violently to peaceful protests, it does happen occasionally and citizens very rarely turn a blind eye to it. It is much more controversial for government officials to violently suppress a peaceful protest than a violent protest. It is understandable that government officials seek to end a violent protest as it poses a threat to the safety of innocent civilians, however, peaceful protests do not pose a threat to anyone's safety as no violence is used against anyone or any What. Another notable example of a government backfiring after cracking down on nonviolent protesters is the Arab Spring. While citizens successfully managed to overthrow Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President HosniMubarak through protests, Syrian citizens were not as successful. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad responded to the peaceful protest by killing and jailing protesters. The repression of Syrian protesters by the Syrian government did not end their movement, but rather strengthened and intensified it (Chenoweth, 2011). This intensification of the nonviolent campaign backfires on the government as it has not achieved its objective, which was to repress citizens and restrain them from spreading knowledge to create change. While it can be argued that nonviolent protest is effective because government repression is rarely successful and almost always backfires on the government, it is also effective because of its strong ability to attract participants. Many would argue that without the participation of people within a protest or movement, there is no protest or movement. This is true because when it comes to a protest or movement, the amount of participation in the campaign is crucial in determining its outcome (Weinstein, 2007). Chenoweth and Stephan examined participation in violent and nonviolent campaigns. Data showed that the average nonviolent campaign had approximately 200,000 participants while the average violent campaign had approximately 5,000 participants (Chenoweth & Stephan, 2013: 32-33). This means that for every violent campaign participant there would be forty nonviolent campaign participants. Campaigns require many participants for their knowledge, resources, and drive to sustain the resistance and recruit more support. There are many reasons why nonviolent protests garner more support than violent protests, but it all comes down to risk. When it comes to violent protest one can ask: does the end justify the means? Is it worth using violence and exposing yourself to the risk of getting in trouble with the law or getting hurt? While some might say yes, most would say no. This is why violent protests often do not have as many participants as non-violent protests (Denardo, 2016: 58). Another reason why nonviolent protests have more participants than violent protests is [1] because of the physical demands of violent campaigns. Often, participating in a violent campaign requires physical skills such as stamina, agility, isolation from society, and potentially a willingness to use a weapon (Chenoweth & Stephan, 2013: 35). Not everyone has those skills, wants to have those skills, or has the time to acquire them. It requires less physical capacity to participate in a nonviolent protest than a violent protest, making it feasible for people in demographics who generally would not participate in a protest if it were violent, such as women and older adults (Chenoweth & Stephan, 2013: 35). Other groups who may choose to participate in a non-violent campaign before a violent campaign include: people with disabilities, young people, parents and their children as they are more accessible and require less physical effort. Nonviolent protest is effective when there are many participants and have higher success rates than violent protests. All campaigns have one thing in common: a goal. Most of the time, their goal is to achieve some sort of change. The most popular types of change include political, economic, social, and environmental change. Nonviolent campaigns have higher success rates in creating change than violent protests. The number of participants in a campaign increases the likelihood of success (Howes, 2013:434). Since nonviolent campaigns have on average forty times more participants than violent campaigns (Chenoweth & Stephan, 2013: 32-33), campaigns do not..